About

Welcome to my web site. I am a social anthropologist and scholar of religion at Uppsala University in Sweden. Previously I held the Torgny Segerstedt Guest Professorship at the University of Gothenburg. For several years I taught at Harvard University, where I was privileged to have as many as 600 students per term in my courses on civic courage and engagement. I regularly give lectures outside the university in both Swedish and English.

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MULTIMEDIA LECTURE:

Courage That Changes the World

Sophie Scholl left her classes to secretly distribute pamphlets against Adolf Hitler; eleven-year-old Malala Yousafzai lived amidst the Taliban while blogging about their brutality. Anthropologist Brian Palmer is haunted by such individuals who risk everything for a more humane society. He gathers wisdom from heroic lives and applies it to everyday questions of surviving as an idealist in an unforgiving world. What can our bravest contemporaries and fallen friends teach us about how to live?

SHOW:

Secret Conspiracy of Hope

Musician/performer Ida Lod and I have created a show about civic courage called ”Secret Conspiracy of Hope.” We use words and song to bring to life our bravest contemporaries and fallen friends, whose acts of courage touch the mystery of existence.

The show weaves together stories of seven remarkable individuals (including Anastasia Baburova, Anna Politkovskaya and Maximilian Kolbe) with powerful songs — as well as reflections that draw on Simone Weil, William James, a Buddhist nun and others.

The show is available in English or Swedish. It runs one hour without an intermission; shorter versions are possible. Ida Lod and I can lead discussions or workshops immediately following a performance.

Civic Courage: Surviving as an Idealist in an Unforgiving World. What is it that fascinates us when someone risks everything to save a stranger? Anthropologist Brian Palmer uses words and images to bring to life our bravest contemporaries and fallen friends. He suggests that their acts of courage touch the mystery of existence. And he explores why courage can sometimes be almost as contagious as fear.

Writing to Attract Interest. A newly minted Ph.D. quipped that only three people would ever read her dissertation: her advisor, her mother, and the one other student in the world working on the same topic. Her pessimistic assessment reminds us of the importance of writing to engage: How can we tell stories that awaken the interest of our colleagues and perhaps even readers from other fields? What would it take to write an academic bestseller? The lecture examines what successful scholarly works have in common. It also provides participants with practical exercises to improve their own writing.